Ralston’s IEW

[kieranperez]

Although I’ve contacted Peter many times and have had interactions with him during the time he was doing satsangs, this was my first time at his intensive (lead mostly by Brendan Lea), and my first retreat in general. The created format for their questions going from who am I, what am I, etc. I thought was a little annoying and rather confusing given that I started with who (which I hear is a common frustration with people in the beginning that do work with Cheng hsin) but I understand why they make the distinction between who and what. It’s basically to distinguish any confusions in the mind about WHO is to get enlightened, as they would put it and then questioning the nature of what your nature is. The thing to keep in mind is that it is an invented framework for working with things and Brendan and Peter are honest and upfront with that. Ultimately it doesn’t matter but I imagine it could avoid confusions down the road even after an enlightenment. 

I really appreciated this sort of pure cold masculine orientation to things as that’s how these guys are and how they run things, particularly Peter. 
 

Brendan primarily is the one that runs things and I think he’s good at his job. 
 

When it comes to the format, as someone whose worked a good bit now with Zen and certain zen masters, particularly Rinzai (though a more toned down version of it), this really does feel like a lot like that. Understandably so since (Rinzai) Zen is a very masculine, militant, and disciplinarian way of doing things. Personally I found it very refreshing and direct and I still feel like they held back the intensity and wish they amped it up more. That’s just my personal take on that though. For me it was very empowering and I highly recommend it if you’re used to this airy fairy egalitarian orientation to things. I found it to be a real breath of fresh air.

I must confess it took me a day to get over my projection of Peter when I first encountered and talked to him in person. This was expected on my end prior and I know that’s usually how this goes. I definitely had a hard time shutting up when it came to asking him questions. He certainly “puts on a character” when it comes to how he is in the dojo and what you see on video. There was a lot I learned about him indirectly from other students and I’ll just say, he’s still a person (as we all are - enlightened or not). That said, the guy is a genius and really a one of those rare kind of humans. His genius as far as I’m concerned really isn’t even necessarily anything to do with enlightenment, although it is impressive in terms of the freedom of a lot of stuff that is not going on for him. I certainly had a lot of fun and look forward to more work. What I found interesting though on the first day was that I felt no transmission or anything from him on the first day, unlike other teachers who I’ve befriended and sat with such that I’m experiencing intensity more strong than any LSD trip I’ve taken. Funny enough, I heard tell from several people he actually hides it to not hook students as it is just a distraction, which I appreciated. Though I can’t help but wonder if that would’ve helped process all the mental garbage in the first days of the intensive and release shit. I also can understand why people think he has some kind of asbergers or something. He certainly seems to lack some kind of basic human empathy thing that most humans are wired with or something. His militant intensity and this austere obsessive personality though was felt from day 1 though and it really stood out, transmission or no transmission, and it was impressive. That guy speaks from that and it really is one of those things you encounter in one of those rare kinds of human like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, or whatever. 

All in all I highly recommend you go. Or just get enlightened and get on with your life. 
 

Cobsider the following Ralstonion thought, “life’s a bitch and then you die.” ?

[tsuki]

I enjoyed reading this. Too bad he's half a world away from where I live

[loub]

Thanks for sharing, really enjoyed reading it as I will be doing some work with him later this year, but have never actually met the guy. Interesting to hear about your experiences with and of the person Peter, so if you got any more anecdotes, keep 'em coming

[Leo Gura]

Did Brendan delight you with his gumbo?

[Greatnestwithin]

2 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Did Brendan delight you with his gumbo?

What does gumbo mean?

[kieranperez]

4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Did Brendan delight you with his gumbo?

Not sure if delight is the word I would use... I definitely had to douse the morning oatmeal with peanut butter and honey. I still remember the first meal there and was like “yeah, Leo wasn’t kidding about the food” ? It felt like that scene in the first Matrix where Neo walks in for breakfast and is faced with the morning gruel before training. He did also say they’re like a 1 star Michelin restaurant, so he was certainly honest. 

Edited April 27, 2021 by kieranperez

[Consilience]

Super interesting report! Thank you.

I did the ENB and TSW fall 2019 and am planning on doing the two week CI later this year. Your reaction to Peter outlined here is very similar to what my own was, however as time has passed, there’s a softness that’s grown in my interpretation of him. He’s the real deal.

Brendan is great too. I actually had a small medical emergency in the middle of one of the workshops and without hesitation or any sort of reaction or judgment Brendan drove us into town to get medication. Incredibly chill, grounded, funny, and developed dude. It was like a real life scenario where he displayed the work he’d done with Cheng Hsin. The moment I communicated the situation it was like a switch flipped and he handled the logistics. Again no judgement, making me feel bad, ignoring or down playing the severity. 

I really don't resonate with Peter on Brendan’s views on meditation or psychedelics, but then again that’s not the work they’re concerned with. In terms of becoming conscious of the mechanisms of mind, self, consciousness, etc., amazing.

[kieranperez]

8 minutes ago, Consilience said:

Brendan is great too. I actually had a small medical emergency in the middle of one of the workshops and without hesitation or any sort of reaction or judgment Brendan drove us into town to get medication. Incredibly chill, grounded, funny, and developed dude. It was like a real life scenario where he displayed the work he’d done with Cheng Hsin. The moment I communicated the situation it was like a switch flipped and he handled the logistics. Again no judgement, making me feel bad, ignoring or down playing the severity.

Well said. I think Brendan really is a trooper and a great guy. He’s been of real help to me for the last year or two. Very cool. The lack of judgement and not “making somebody wrong” really i think is a subtle thing to catch in order to see how empowering that actually is. He really does work his ass off and that’s clear to anyone that goes there. They walk their talking with a lot of integrity. Their actions and words match. It’s a very rare thing to see, even among teachers. I’ve come across teachers that will talk all this stuff when it comes to “don’t believe me, these aren’t beliefs” and blah blah blah but there presentation is such that they talking the statements themselves as inherently true. Which really is misleading and false - there’s nothing inherently true about any verbal teaching given that it’s all couched in ideas, concepts, and language, which the mind, by no fault of any student, is going create something in their mind. If you really pay attention at a Cheng Hsin intensive and how they do things, the very way they present their material through exercises is a way to avoid that route entirely. I imagine most people don’t get that. So many spiritual people take this “no belief” thing as just pure confirmation bias of their own new set of spiritual dogmas.  

19 minutes ago, Consilience said:

am planning on doing the two week CI later this year.

See you there.

20 minutes ago, Consilience said:

He’s the real deal.

He’s also just put in an insane amount of  work. That obsessive and focused quality he speaks of is palpable. You can see that when you’re close to him. I’ve seen that when I met Michael Jordan or if you look at guys like Kobe Bryant. It’s a rare quality. However, he has his flaws which I have heard indirectly from others.

23 minutes ago, Consilience said:

In terms of becoming conscious of the mechanisms of mind, self, consciousness, etc., amazing.

To add more onto this specific contribution.. what I really find stunning is just how he did so by going beyond this conventional inventions for doing so, recognizing the fact that they are inventions and is not truly necessary (though that is not to say they can’t be enormously helpful for some). Though he has done a lot of original enlightenment intensives, I know hear he has done a lot of work specifically with Zen and went around meeting different teachers including people like Adi Da who he sat with, saying, as pretty much everyone else seems to say, that he was the powerful teacher he ever met in terms of the sheer wattage of transmission by no close margin. So he’s been around and done inhuman amounts of work not just with the consciousness work but also of course in the martial arts. I mean, it still blows my mind that he almost scored a fight with Sugar Ray Leonard. I even hear tell he was as fast as him, which is insane. He also has an IQ of like 160 so he is a guy to be around for sure.